One of my Birthday Treats, from my husband, was a visit to the Royal Acadmy of Art. The Exhibition l was dying to see, was the work of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. To get there we went through Waterloo Station and saw this beautiful Poppy Dispay, for Remebrance Day .
We are here and l am so excited!
Tree, 2009-10, 2015
This is the beginning of the Exhibition ... a Forest made of bits of old wood, from all over China. Each tree is made up of bits of wood, all screwed together, to form each tree.
Quite a few interesting people went pass me, while l sat on the marble seat.
Straight, 2008–12.
Steel reinforcing bars1200 x 600 cm. These were the rods (rebars) that were meant, to hold the concrete together! The concreate was not even all around the rods. A lot of students died in schools, He collected tons of the rods and his team straightened then all out! Part of the time he was doing this, he was sent to prison but his workers kept on working.
Porcelain crabs,
3,000 pieces,
each 5 × 25 × 10 cm
Twelve Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) and four Neolithic (5000–3000 BC) vases with industrial paint. I want one !
Marble Stroller, 2014
One ton of compressed Tea ... the smell was wonderful.
Just love the design on the floor of the studio ... floor vent!
A lot of things, such as bones, copied in porcelain. Beautiful!
Six-part work composed
of six dioramas ( 50 % smaller than normal size )– Supper,
Accusers, Cleansing,
Ritual, Entropy, Doubt – in
fibreglass, iron, oxidised
metal, wood, polystyrene,
sticky tape, each 377 ×
198 × 153 cmThe police detained the artist in a secret location for 81 days, throughout
which two guards stood silently watching him from only 80 cm away at all times,
even in the shower.
(from the RA Catalogue)
" Bicycle
Chandelier ", 2015, a further evolution of Very Yao (pictured). Once a floor-based
installation, Ai has re-fashioned it for the Royal Academy, where for the first time it
appears as a chandelier made from Forever bicycles, the country’s most popular
brand since 1940. His appropriation of the bike calls attention to its one-time
status as China’s chief form of travel, owned by Chinese citizens across the land.
Today, however, the bike has ebbed in popularity as a result of the country’s rapid
modernisation, improved public transport and air pollution. Significantly, it has
also become unaffordable to many. Ai has pointed out that owning a bike in China
has become a luxury, a fact he emphasises by converting the installation into
another symbol of extravagance, the chandelier.
The artist, who grew up in exile without lights or even candles, further
accentuates the status of this work by suspending and illuminating white crystals
that cascade down from the rims of the bicycle wheels. He has taken Duchamp’s
concept of the modest readymade and not only enlarged it to a grand scale, but
also transfigured it. No longer utilitarian items promising their owners a means of
transportation and thus freedom, the Forever bicycles now hang eternally
motionless.
An amazing exhibition and so much to take in. There was a lot more to see but how many more pictures can you take! :) I don't normal use the multi-media guide but for this exhibition, it is a must. My husband, who only came to the exhibition to please me, said
" I didn't expect to enjoyed it but l am so pleased l came, it is amazing" ! No more needs to be said!
